


Subsidal

by MorbidOptimist



Category: Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Art, Cover Art, Digital Art, F/F, Mermaids, Sea Monsters, Sharks, Underwater, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 02:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14761059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorbidOptimist/pseuds/MorbidOptimist
Summary: Raven and her pod of friends live among their reef as guardians, protecting it from neighboring pods and loners such as the menaces of the drop off, the Hive. When Raven and Jinx get a few chances to meet face to fin, what will become of them and their precariously balanced biomes?This story reimagines the Teen Titans in an underwater world full of underwater things and just might be a whale of a good time!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I originally published this fic on FF.net, but I'm moving it over here to a03 to continue work on it. I've made a few edits, so consider this an updated revision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally published this fic on FF.net, but I'm moving it over here to a03 to continue work on it. I've made a few edits, so consider this an updated revision.

Her hand floundered around in the darkness; she was still clinging to sleep, and was too groggy to do anything more than make a few directionless swatting motions in the general direction of where she presumed her oldest charge to be. When several attempts proved fishless, she sighed and rubbed her eyes open with her other hand, gingerly avoiding her tapered claws.

The violets of her eyes shrank in the gloom as she took in the familiar shapes lining her cave. It was small; a personal den that she had dug out for herself when she had accepted her place in the reef, though even now, the hideyhole was often teased to be her own mysterious lair which guarded unspeakable treasures and secrets.

Ordinarily, Raven silently admitted, her thoughts drifting to her charges, the rumors were now often quite right.

Feeling a gentle pressure at her side, Raven looked to her left, and two small shapes stood out from the shadows of her belongings and a quiet smile momentarily graced her face. She watched them twitch in their sleep for a moment, with a bubble of contentment in her chest.

They were curled up next to each other, likely having passed out as they usually did, with Timmy and Teether fighting over who would get to sleep in Teether's security shell, despite Timmy no longer being able to fit in it properly. A ripple of amusement spread through her muscles along her spine and she propped herself up, images of such past scuffles flickering through her mind's eye without any real purpose.

She felt her gills flare with unease suddenly, and her tentacles began weaving themselves in knots beneath her as she realized that while the two boys were sleeping peacefully beside her, they were the only other occupants of her cave.

Melvin was missing.

Raven fought down the spike of panic threatening to send her tearing through the reef in a mindless, anxious, fury, and took a deep breath.

She used the tentacle closest to the boys to spread a blanket of sand over their bodies to keep the evening chill out of their bones, taking care not to let her spines or suckers catch on their young tender scales, and slipped out into the reef as effortlessly as a cloud of ink and as fluid in motion.

It was still really late, to the point of being very early, and though the water was brightening slowly, it was still by minute degrees and the reef was colored in various hues of unflattering grays.

Ordinarily, she was both fond and furious at such times, for their familiar nostalgic lulls. As it was, the lack of sun did nothing more than fill her to the gills with merciless thoughts of all the kinds of threatening creatures that liked to lurk in the gloom, that would be more than eager to pounce on an unattended tiny mer out on her own.

Her two fins pulsated, keeping her in place, and Raven glanced around the surrounding reef. She closed her eyes and focused on the reef as her two velar filaments slid out of their pouches; as they unfurled into the ocean before her, the only signals of mer movement they picked up were from the children still resting behind her. She sighed and withdrew them, as they were far too sensitive to keep in the densely populated reef for too long. Sensing every fish and crustacean in a ten-fathom radius gave her a headache, and her already pulsating temples did not need further aggravating.

It was a shallow hope that she would find her oldest charge hidden amongst the coral and in no general danger, but now that it was beached

Raven found her unease beginning to gnaw at her flesh anew and it only strengthened the throb behind her brow; if Melvin wasn't near the cave, then she had no doubt gone off to find Bobby, her imaginary whaleshark who lived past the Drop Off.

Raven would've cursed herself, if she had any time to do so. There was no time to even sound an alarm; it would take far too long to awaken her pod and every second she wasted was a second sooner that the little girl could die.

Cursing the figment with the entirety of her being, and her own actions for fighting with Melvin about his existence so often, Raven shot off as fast as her body could propel her, barely dodging the corals and plants interrupting her path.

The fish at least, had the decency to get out of her way. The plants were not as lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raven is based around a Vampire Squid, but there are several liberties taken on her on account of her parentage; ie shooting ink, having bioluminescence, having variable numbers of tentacles at any given time, ect.  
> Jinx is loosely based around a catfish and an electric eel. There is no such thing as a Cheshire Catfish (to my knowledge) so I made her roughly how I thought her abilities would translate over into being as a mermaid.  
> Robin is a sea robin, which is quite close to flyingfish; which is a light pun on his parents being the "Flying Graysons", Beast Boy is a mimic octopus, Starfire will be based on a few different things, and Cyborg will have prosthetics.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ( art is my own, from my old tumblr blog )

 

The few minutes it took for her to speed out of the reef were several minutes too many by Raven's evaluation.

As she neared the Drop Off, she saw shapes emerging out of the darkness, one of which was very large, and was still too far away to properly identify in the bad lighting, as well as a smaller shape which nothing but an instinctual upheaval within her gut identified as her missing child.

Relief momentarily restored her breath until the sight of a third figure boarded her recognition and her heart very nearly went cold as a flash of pink sparked briefly in the murky waters.

The only mer near the reef or anywhere else that Raven knew of, with pink sparks was Jinx, the leader of a pod rivaling them for control over the reef. Jinx was quick and disorientating, dangerous and reckless. Wild and unpredictable; flashes of past altercations and currentswept battles lapping at her mind. Their pods had clashed many times for their poaching of the reef, and Raven had fought personally against the cheshiremer enough times to know that if Melvin got caught in her flares, she'd likely be stunned to death.

And what was worse, was that the large shape Raven had initially seen was now circling around in a very unnerving manner, and something in her abdomen told her that she wasn't lucky enough for it to be one of Jinx's teammates.

Rage filled Raven to her core and she felt her skin ignite red with the irritation, changing the color and shapes of her bioluminescent marks into a colored formation that under normal circumstances she tried very hard to abstain from; a harsh contrast from peaceful scavenger, to violent aggressor. She harbored a deepseated worry that the warning display would terrify her friends, but faced with the plausibility of Melvin's demise, Raven felt no such apprehensions.

Good, she thought, as the strange red patterns lit up all the way to her arms, Let me be terrifying.

And with that, she swam faster with the burning intent and grim dedication common of a Titan heading into battle; she may not have been her pod's most prized fighter, but her prowess was rightly formidable all on its own.

Another flicker of pink lit up the sea and this time the flash lasted long enough for Raven catch a glimpse of what was going on.

The large shape was a great white shark.

Jinx had positioned herself between the shark twice her size and Melvin, and she looked determined, making Raven's first thought that the mer was intending to keep the potential kill to herself.

Jinx and Melvin were both at the edge of the drop-off and the shark was just ever so farther out in the Deep, a few fins above them. Jinx sparked whenever the shark drew too close, and her stripes were constantly dancing along her skin. Despite the display, the shark seemed to be gaining confidence, and that didn't sit well inside Raven.

When she finally reached them, Melvin charged into her at full force and Raven felt her rage dissolve. Her red phosphorous faded and the ends of her main tentacles subconsciously lit up in their normal blue to help illuminate their deeper water surroundings.

She gathered the girl into her arms for a hug and Melvin, knowing that she was treading thin waters, began to blubber her apologies but Raven quickly hushed them by hugging her tighter; feeling that they momentarily had more pressing concerns.

When Raven released her, her eyes left the shark to glance at the young girl as Melvin exclaimed excitedly, "-I was trying to find Bobby and then I got lost and I thought I was a goner but then she came out of nowhere and she was showing me the way home and then he came out of nowhere and then you showed up!"

"Jinx was leading you back to the Reef?" she asked, not quite sure what to make of the statement, her eyes darting to Jinx, the shark, and back again, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, she said that the Deep was too dangerous for a kid like me and I tried to tell her that I was doing just fine but then… you know… a shark appeared and I still haven't seen Bobby, but I would have found him if it hadn't have been for that mean ol' fishface."

Raven sighed and pushed down the blooming rant about swimming off on her own for later when everyone was home and safe again.

Instead, she turned her attention back to the immediate threat after Jinx drummed a warning. The barbells dotting her abdomen were twitching and when Raven found what had caught the girl's attention Raven felt her blue lights dim of their own accord.

There was another dark shape approaching from the distance.

If things turned bad, Raven knew, studying the situation on fin, they were going to gain a lot more attention very shortly; if they got themselves injured their bloodtrails would lead other deep-sea predators right to their pods, and anything could happen in a turbulent blood frenzy such as that.

"Would you be up for a little truce Jinx?" Raven called, as her body lit up red again.

Though Jinx's attention was still focused on the sharks, she replied, "This bastard's been following us for awhile now and I didn't want to lead him into the reef. He's more of a pain in the tailfin than Robin is. And now there's two of them."

"So is that a yes?"

"It's a fuck yes," Jinx replied wholeheartedly, "And the guppy?"

Raven cast a glance at her rival and pushed Melvin behind her with a tentacle before turning to her.

"Melvin, can you make it back to the reef?"

"I think so?" she offered, her face laced with uncertainty. She had already been swimming for several hours in deep water and was quite visibly worn out.

Raven shook her head and cast her glance to the bottom; there were rocks and seadust beneath them that the girl could hide there until it was safe.

"Melvin, when Jinx and I make our moves, I want you to swim to the bottom as fast as you can and hide under the rocks and sand until I tell you to come out again, do you understand?"

She nodded, but frowned as she caught the melodic notes of Raven's extra serious voice. She was scared, but she had absolute faith in her mentor.

Satisfied, Raven turned back to the sharks, who were circling them now.

"Jinx?"

"I heard you gillbreath, you take Dumb and I'll take Dumber."

With that as her warning, Jinx rocketed forward at the first shark and rammed into its side with her shoulder at full force. A cloud of blood puffed from the fish's gills and Jinx shook her body to keep from losing consciousness herself, sparks flaring along her lateral line and fingertips.

Seeing the combat start, Melvin dove to the seabed as fast as her tail could carry her, ending in a cloud of upheaved dust as she wormed herself into a tactfully defensive position.

The second shark had charged towards Melvin the second she had started to move, but Raven raced forward to intercept the attack.

Jinx popped her shoulder back into place as her shark brought itself back around to face her and she rippled her stripes to keep the shark's attention from straying to the other pair of mers.  
She narrowly dodged the shark's lunge and took the opportunity to grab its dorsal fin and shocked it before it managed to throw her off in a cascade of rippling bubbles.

Raven hit her shark in the middle of its descent after Melvin; she latched on, her suckers catching first, spines second, and by using every tentacle at her disposal, she forced the mouth closed and threw its course wildly off balance as it instinctually tried to thrash her off of itself.

Raven risked a glace to the seabed, and saw nothing of Melvin but the now settling cloud of sand, reassuring her that her charge was well hidden.

The shark she was riding, however, was livid and again thrashed around wildly; the suckers along her tentacles kept her from losing her grip and a vicious snarl emanated from her throat. She began to weave her tentacles inside the shark's gills for added leverage, choking the shark from the inside out.

The water was starting to get brighter now, and Raven could now easily make out the shark fight that Jinx was having in the early morning light some odd tailflanks away, as the shark thrashed them briefly into view and away again.  
Jinx was visibly winning, as her shark now understood that the pink flashes were painful and threw off its equilibrium whenever they hit directly. She had rammed him enough that he had finally lost interest.

Jinx let her shark swim off, hoping that the scent of blood would cause the oncoming investigators to follow it instead of coming to harassing them.

Feeling satisfied with herself, Jinx turned to see how her rival was faring, and although she was fairly impressed with the girl's tenacity and willingness to fight a shark face first, she knowingly swam over to them and watched as Raven ripped through the shark's gills.

"The more blood you spill the more of 'em will come round in a few minutes," Jinx called after the thrashing pair.  
Raven was too engrossed in her battle to reply and so Jinx switched tactics, "I know it's nearly spawning season an all, but surely you could find someone more interested in eating you out than eating you up?"

Raven startled at that and nearly lost her grip on the giant fish as Jinx circled to the shark's tail and took hold.

"I'll pull back and you hop off?" Jinx offered with a cheeky smile.

Raven grimaced, not really wanting to let go, but nodded as much as the now faint jerking movements allowed.  
Jinx lit up and shocked the shark with several volts of pink electricity and Raven released a cloud of ink as she propelled herself backwards. The swirling colors dazed the already gravely injured fish greatly which allowed Raven to slip away unnoticed.

Raven swam to Jinx's side and they quickly descended to the seafloor as the shark above them attempted to make sense of its surroundings.

"You ok?" Jinx asked, almost friendly; "Not missing any limbs or anything?"

"Nothing that won't grow back," Raven replied with mild amusement.

Raven turned her gaze upwards to the shark, leading Jinx to follow suit. The shark made it out of the inkcloud, and was looking quite worse for wear. It circled once, and they watched it swim towards the Deep, with small rivers of red leaking from its gills.

Raven settled herself in the sand and let the tension melt off of her body and coil into the seafloor. Her luminescence extinguished itself and the number of her tentacles retreated to a more humbling number, at least by outward appearance.

Jinx rolled on the seabed, the action tickling out the stress in her coiled muscles.

"So, that was something," Jinx offered.

"Certainly something," Raven agreed.

Jinx rolled in the sand again, contorting her back as only those of the cheshire breed could, and then flipped over on her back, belly exposed, and looked at Raven inquisitively.

"Are you gonna be able to get that smallfry home ok?"

"We'll be fine," she replied alongside a nod before pausing, her gaze actively avoiding the mer's vulnerability, and then she cocked her head to one side, her gaze unintentionally returning, and asked, "Will you get home alright?"

Jinx laughed, a loud and nearly hissing sound, and then she smiled a smile filled with sharp and pointy teeth, which were common enough for carnivorous mers, but dainty enough for breeds that didn't dwell very far into the Deep.

"Don't you worry your pretty little fleshy skirt about me Titan, I'm a big prawn."

She winked and then closed her eyes as she nestled her tail deeper into the sand and sprawled out her arms; the static in her joints seeping reactionlessly into the grains of the surrounding seadust.

Raven glanced upwards again, the sunlight filtering the water in shades of blue now, and when she caught no signs of sharks, decided that it was time to call her little girl out of hiding.

"Melvin! It's alright now, you can come out," Raven called out across the ocean floor.

Some tail lengths away, there was a stir in the sand as Melvin pulled herself out from a small crevice she had wedged herself in, creating another puff of dusty particles around her. It took a little bit of wiggling, as she had wedged herself tightly, but she popped out no worse for wear.

Melvin darted forward happily and circled the two older mers before settling herself in Raven's lap with abandon.

"I can't wait to tell Timmy that I watched you fight a shark today!" she exclaimed excitedly, eagerness littered across her face, and her fins flared for emphasis.

"And I can't wait to tell you why swimming off on your own is a bad idea," Raven warned, which put a hesitant look across the girl's face.

"I'm grounded aren't I?"

"Very."

The little girl sighed and Jinx flipped over, her tail sashaying along the sand.

"Well," she drawled, "Not that this hasn't been quite an adventure but I think it's time I get going. Later squirt," she offered while giving the girl's hair a friendly ruffle, "Let me know next time you're out in the Deep so that I can kick your ass before the sharks do."

Melvin giggled and Jinx looked turned her gaze from the little girl to the older one holding her, which prompted the Titan to speak.

"Thank you for the assistance."

"Yeah whatever, the HIVE Shoal will have their day yadda yadda yadda."

"I mean it," she insisted, "Melvin is alive because of you."

Jinx blushed a bit and played it off with a puff of her chest and a swish of her dorsal fins.

"Just you wait, my rebelness will wear off on her, then you'll be cursing me again," she jested.

Raven offered her a crooked smile, and then scooped herself off of the seafloor. Melvin grabbed on to Raven's shoulders and Jinx watched them ascend for a bit and then turned tail to get back to her own friends, a small smile on her lips and an odd buoyancy beneath her fins.


	3. Chapter 3

The swim back to Raven's den was calming for the older mer. The familiar sponges and polyps gave her a sense of contentment, and with the dappled sunlight now streaming down, the reef was quickly blooming into life for another day's bustle of activity. 

Melvin was also enjoying the ride; she was still hanging onto her mentor's shoulders, and she was being relatively quiet; partially from exhaustion, partially from knowing that she was still awaiting punishment, and mostly because she was still upset that she had not managed to find her friend.

She did, however, point out a friendly turtle and a couple of striped snakes to the older mer, for even Melvin was not immune to the charms of the reef, especially at her young age.

When Raven neared the corals surrounding her den, she spotted a flash of her leader through the foliage and called out a greeting.

He nodded to her as she settled herself, emerging from the pyolps, and the two boys flanking him each with one of his fins in hand, raced forward to greet her. 

"They were quite worried about you," her leader stated. 

Raven nodded as she hugged the little mers; "I'm afraid I had a little moonlit swim to interrupt this morning," she replied as her hind tentacles coiled over themselves, flipping up her spine to slide Melvin off of her shoulders and gently pull her in front of their leader, "Melvin went to the

Deep last night and I left to retrieve her."

The armored plates along Robin's body clicked softly as he pondered the situation for a moment; he looked over the girls and looked thankful neither of them appeared to be any worse for wear.

"Did you have any trouble?"

"A little, of which I'll tell you shortly," Raven replied while giving Melvin an affectionate pat, "After I make sure everyone is alright, if that is fine by you."

His dorsal fin smoothed itself along his spine in an affirmative while he replied, "The boys have already eaten, as Star's the one who found them this morning, and you know how she is;" to which Raven hummed accordingly, "She also left me with a little something for Melvin;" he handed her a bundle wrapped with kelp leaves from his satchel witch Raven took graciously; it was not was not hard to find food in the Reef, but Star had correctly assumed that Raven had not yet had time to forage for the day.

"They did not give her any trouble I hope?" she asked as she delegated the bundle to one of her tentacles, the boys at her skirt moving their attention's to their sister. 

"Nah," Robin replied happily with a shake of his head, "Once she offered to let them braid her hair they were right as reeds. I only stepped in when it was time for her to patrol the kelp beds."

"You must remind me to thank her then, and yourself, for that matter."

He grinned again and nodded, politely dismissing her; "I'll be out here when you're ready," he offered.

With a final nod, Raven scooped up the kids, a tentacle around each, and shuttled them back into her den. 

She released them as gently as she had gathered them, and the boys wasted no time to start circling about their sister in greeting.

Teether, the youngest, still had a little trouble maneuvering and therefore settled for hugging her from the sand, but he was growing strong and Raven had no doubt that once he was developed enough, that he would be more than capable of pulling off every move his siblings could with ease.

Their friendly reunion was cut short, however, as Raven called Melvin back over to her. 

Reluctantly, the young mergirl swam forward.

"Melvin."

"Yes mam?"

"Before I say anything about rules or punishments, I would like to know why you felt the need to swim off alone last night."

"Well," Melvin began, with a hand stroking one of her arm fins absently, "I wanted to see Bobby."

"We've seen Bobby plenty of times," Raven countered.

"No we haven't!" Melvin shouted; her fins flared and her eyes grew wide, "He's afraid of anyone seeing him so whenever I go with the others he never shows up," as she continued she deflated a bit, and her fidgeting increased, "So I thought that if I went on my own that I could bring him back here and show you that he's real. And it would be nighttime so everyone else would be sleeping and he wouldn't get scared."  
Raven held her tongue between her teeth and breathed deeply. She was silent save for the sounds of sand being brushed against her tentacles.

Timmy hugged his sister's arm, and she smiled at him halfheartedly.

Teether was still resting on the floor, now with his shell in his mouth. His tail fins slapped the sand gently whenever he found a particularly nice section to bite.

She let go of her breath.

"Melvin."

"Yeah?"

"Going off on your own is a very bad idea, which is why there are rules against you doing it and while I am very thankful that neither the sharks or the Hive got you, I'm pretty sure you realize that it would be very possible for them to do so?"  
Melvin nodded.

"And I don't want to punish you for trying to be considerate of your… friend, but you did do something very dangerous," she continued.  
Melvin nodded again with more vigor.

"So what do you think? What do you think would be a fair punishment for this problem?"

The girl stopped and thought about it for a minute, her face scrunched up and her tail flicked steadily as she worked something out. When she came to a conclusion her eyes lit up with a bit more confidence, she replied, "Maybe I can make it up to you by helping extra hard? And I can promise not to go off on my own again?"

"That sounds reasonable," Raven replied, with a smile, and Melvin brightened slightly.

"And maybe, in a few days, if you've behaved really well, you can be ungrounded," she added quickly, "alright? So for now, no going past the Reef or to the Surface or anywhere else unless someone from our pod is escorting you, do you understand?" 

"Alright," the girl replied reluctantly; she had gotten off easy, but there was only so much one could look forward to barnacle hunting with Robin or kelp tending with Starfire.

"Now did you get hurt at all?" Raven asked, trying to scan the girl's body for fin tears or scalp abrasions.   
The girl shook her head, "No, I'm fine."

"Alright then, now I'm sure you're tired from your adventure so go ahead and take a nap. One of the others will be around when you wake up and if you're hungry there's whatever Star's left for you this morning."

Melvin nodded and Raven handed her the kelp wrapped bundle.

She swam to her side of the cave, where there was a perfectly shaped crevice for her in the sand and she unwrapped the kelp from the prize within.

It smelled like swordfish from what Raven could make out, which was a rare treat for the pod, left over from the hunt a few day prior; their cybernetic friend had really outdone himself on that account, she reminisced fondly. 

The boys, having not been a part of the events were now looking at her expectantly.

She held eye contact for a few moments with a raised brow, making them shift uneasily before she smiled and nodded.

The two boys raced out of the cave, ready to properly start their day.

Raven watched them wander out into the sunlit corals, her mind lingering on the impressions of the young mers. 

As they were still quite young, their days mostly consisted of playing hide and seek in the kelp forest or racing around in the reef, which taught them valuable skills like where to hide and how to maneuver in tight places while letting them remain frustratingly underfin and safely under her pod's watchful guidance. To the boys' merit, they were quite good at finding useful items that the others didn't have time to look for; shells, pretty stones, tiny crustations, and the occasional sand dollar. 

The pretty trinkets could be traded or used for ornamentation and their pod always looked forward to seeing what the children could find; Starfire's hair was forever filled with things woven in from their scavenger hunts, and despite Raven's tendency to mostly spare herself of adornments; she kept a small pile of treasures that they had given her at the back of her cave.

Thinknig on it more, her mind reminisced further, a soft smile lighting her face. 

Timmy's blue security shell was one such find, and after discovering how useful it was for carting treasures around, it had quickly become their favorite object. Raven had attached a strap to it, and now it was used for the older children to carry Teether with them, rather than leave him with her all day, which excited them and the youngest mer greatly. 

Raven, while proud, admittedly had moments of missing the baby constantly tugging at her tentacles or her ruffle of hair.   
It hadn't been long after that, that the trio had found something quite special indeed; the young mers had in fact, been the ones to present Robin with his harpoon, which they had dug up in the great grass bed. He carried it proudly ever since, and it had definitely helped cement their place in the pod, which Raven had feared for when she had first brought them in from the Deep. 

Now, she was sure it'd be unthinkable to the others, to cast the children out. 

Her tentacles coiled absently, shifting the sand about underneath her, grazing along the long-dead coral hidden beneath, catching along a half-eaten shell of tiny claw. 

Her mind returned to the crustations and tiny bugs the children were always prone to find; sometimes they brought back what they caught, but usually, their edible finds were immediately gloated over and ingested, more often than not. Melvin was usually the one, to bring home a lone crawfish or crab for the for the hoard of the pod and one time, she had quite impressively, offered up a very sizable lobster.

Raven had a feelnig that in time, the children would prove to be very capable hunters. Melvin was a keen ambusher in the making, and by using his amazing sonar ability, Timmy was able to stun fish; a rare ability that Raven only permitted him to do one targeted fish at a time to keep the Reef from collapsing, which Melvin usually enforced in her absence, as the sonar sound was quite painful to listen to for too long.   
Part of her was greatly looking forward to the day when she could take them on real gathering missions and patrols, if only to give them a real opportunity to let their natural talents shine. 

At the moment, it was still imperative that she kept to teaching them the basics of life around the reef; perhaps the most immediate necessity, was that the children were still learning which species were toxic to eat, and under Raven's orders, if they didn't recognize it, they weren't to hunt it until she or one of the others had identified it for them. 

As a result, much of their romps out and about the reef was spent in light snacking, a minimal payoff for their overexertions that often left Melvin and Timmy hungrier when they swam home at the end of the day than when they paddled out at the start of it, Raven mused; Teether however, whom Raven was convinced was part cookie cutter shark, had no trouble stuffing things into his mouth, alive or not, and there was really nothing anyone could do about it; though Raven and her pod did try their best to keep him from eating anything that wasn't technically digestible. 

Raven watched the vacant waters outside her cave for a few moments more, and then turned back to Melvin who was now nibbling on the kelp wrap. 

Fondness filled her belly, and her skirt flared slightly as she raised herself in the water. 

She swam forward and hugged Malvin; she held her until the quite visibly tired girl relaxed and returned it. She kissed the girl's head fondly and released her, drew back and regarded her a moment, before she tucked Melvin into the sand like she used to do when she was younger.   
"Sleep well little limpet, I'll likely be back for supper."

Melvin's reply was lost in her yawn and so Raven took her cue to leave the den.

True to his word, Robin had remained a few tail-lengths away from the hollow and was awaiting her report. 

"Everything sorted out?" he asked, while his large fins rippled to keep him in place and his forespines twitched with interest.  
Raven exhaled, displaying the wariness of the day's events as her body rippled loosely; Robin smiled knowingly.

"That bad huh?" 

"Two sharks and a Hive member."

The smile instantly fell off the boy's face and his brows knit in worry.

"Explain." 

Raven sucked in a large drawl of water into her abdominal gills to begin regaling her tale; "I woke up last night when I got the feeling that something was wrong. I tucked the boys in, knowing that they were safer asleep and in bed then in going with me in the middle of the night. I didn't fetch anyone because I didn't have that kind of time. The closest would have been Gar and he's in the complete opposite direction of the

Drop Off."

"Alright," he replied begrudgingly; he was never fond of anyone going out near the Deep on their own, even on the Shelf he preferred when his pod kept to pairs at a minimum, as the HIVE tended to scavenge it at will. 

"And when I got there I saw Melvin being shielded by Jinx," Raven continued while Robin's curiosity peaked and his frown worsened.

"She had apparently found Melvin wandering in the Deep and was bringing her back to the Reef when a shark started to follow them. By the time I got there, it was ready to make one of us lunch and there was another one on its way."

"Odd, they usually prefer to scavenge." 

Raven shrugged and continued, "Maybe they were drawn in by the smell of our hunt the other two days ago."

"Perhaps."

"At any rate, she took one and I took the other while Melvin hid at the bottom of the Shelf, er, Reefside that is," she clarified.

"Naturally."

"Once we fought them off she went her way and I took Melvin home; she's going to tail the others on chores for the next few days by the way."

"I'll have Garfield pick her up later; he's needed to do the clams for a while anyway."

Raven hummed an affirmative and Robin continued, "The fact that she ran into Jinx though worries me. It's more likely she would have ransomed the girl if you hadn't shown up if not have killed her upright."

"They're poachers Robin, not a war band."

"They are whenever they get a new headmaster."

"Can a shoal be blamed for following their alpha's example? They don't have much of a choice Robin, it's do or die out in the Deep."

Robin scowled, causing a deep drumming sound to reverberate through his chest and Raven conceded the argument with a tilt of her head.

"I'm just saying that if she has been inclined towards harming Melvin, she would have done it before I had arrived and she certainly wouldn't have helped me with the sharks."

"She was likely priming the Shelf for a blood frenzy. No telling how much her friends could scavenge out of that."

"Reward enough for the life of an innocent I would hope, I'm fairly certain she threw out her shoulder in the ordeal."

"If that's the case then hopefully we won't have to deal with the Hive until she's healed, knowing them though, they'll try to pull something just to show they can. I'll start my patrol earlier today just to make sure. Also I like the new look."

"New look?"

He gestured to her chest with a nod and Raven blanched; true to Robin's word, the string of blue beads was missing from her chest.

"I must have lost them in the fight," she replied sadly, "I'll see if I can find them."

"I'll tell the others to keep an eye out for them. I'm sure they'll turn up."

Raven nodded dutifully before asking, "Anything you would have me do today?"

"I would rather you rest up yourself, since you've been fighting sharks all morning."

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't know I wasn't capable."

"Alright, but take it easy for my sake at least," Robin offered; his hand held in the way of peace, "There's only so much I can worry about in a day."

"Fair enough," Raven replied contently, being more agreeable now that her pride was still intact, "I could always help Victor check the net."

"Sounds good," he replied, "The net always needs fixing; I'm going to get started on that patrol and see if there's anyone up to anything they shouldn't be."

"Have fun."

"I should be so lucky," he bemusedly replied.

It was then that a familiar shade of green caught Raven's attention and nodded in its direction, "Is that Garfield?"

He put his hand to his eyes and gazed intently at the growing figure and thrummed affirmatively.

"I do hope he hasn't gotten himself knotted up again. He's going to lose a limb one of these days."

Robin's face remained passive as the petite changeling arrived quite out of breath.

"What's wrong Gar?"

"The Hive," the managed between huffs, "They're at the Reef."

"What did I tell you, eh?" Robin muttered to her under his bubbled breath. 

"Something about bad luck I would imagine," Raven teased dryly. 

"I'm pretty sure they're looking for a fight," the still very much out of breath octoboy relayed, his form gyrating wildly through all manners of formations as it tried to camouflage into the reef and flare dramatic warning patterns, all in green.

"Then we'll give them one," Robin replied strongly; his armored scales clicked as he sounded a mighty thrum through his chest; "TITANS TOGETHER!"


	4. Chapter 4

  
"What's wrong?" Melvin shouted, having darted from the den.

"Find your brothers, get back inside," Raven ordered, pausing only a moment to inform the girl before propelling herself after her leader.

She caught up to him quickly, and she kept to his flank as he raced after the octoboy guiding the way; they navigated the reef with ease, the shapes and stacks beyond familiar. Along the way, they were joined by the others, Starfire to their left, and Cyborg on their right, both of their respective light trails streaming out behind them in their wakes.

Beast Boy stopped far shorter than Raven anticipated, as he came to a wavering stop long before the reef bleached out into the Shelf.

Mammoth and Gizmo were frantically finning in place, clearly agitated, and looking as though they had just been pulsed out of a fight with a giant squid; Raven was quite familiar with the aftermath of such devastating fights.

Robin braced himself, spurring Raven and the others to follow suit, but held point. The fact there were only two Hive members, and not their entire pod, was confusing and out of the ordinary, as was their current inactions of launching any attack.

"State your business," he ordered, as the pair of rivaling boys shot him grimacing looks.

"There's a frenzy at the Hive," Mammoth stated, his breathing ragged; there were lacerations and pieces of his lower body missing.

"Your mucus-munching teenybopper guppy-pup and her blood-crazed nannyfin brought on a pack of hammerheads and now there's all kinds of bonybutfaced gillbreathers breathing down our backs! We saved your shitty kid, now pay up the price," Gizmo demanded.

"If we do not assist, they might wipe out the Hive," Starfire observed quietly, "We swore to protect those of the reef when we took it under fin."

"Yeah, but the shelf ain't the reef," Cyborg countered, "I don't know if we have the numbers to make the difference anymore, now that..."

"Terra's loss was unfortunate, yes," Robin agreed, in an effort to keep everyone's calm; Beast Boy fidgeted in place, visibly uncomfortable with the mention of their deceased friend.

"They saved Melvin," Raven stated, surprising herself with her audible confidence; "I want to return the favor."

The others looked at her for a moment, and then to Robin, who nodded and turned to the tiny Hive boy.

"Lead the way," he instructed.

"Finally," Gizmo chastized, turning tail; "Thought we wasn't gonna have noth'fin left by the time you tails-for-brains got your dorsals out of your knots."

Beast Boy and Cyborg muttered under their breaths, too faint for Raven to make out; though she knew enough of their disdain for the small black and green mer. Apparently, Cyborg and the boy had history, though the large mechanically enhanced Titan never liked to get into just what that history had been; Raven and the others surmised it had to do with his prosthetics.

Mammoth on the contrary, was perhaps the Hive member most of them felt little hostility towards, which was the likely reason to him having summoned them, instead of remaining to defend his pod with his massive bulk. The great-white mer was larger than most of his breed, his namegift reflective of the prehistoric megalodons that he seemed to have taken after; he still had a long way to grow, to reach the fabled lengths of such a beast, but Raven could easily picture him slowly expanding over the centuries, if given the chance.

The Hive boys were silent, as they led them forward out of the reef and over the Shelf.

Already, the massive swarms of sharks and scavenging fish were easily visible in the surrounding waters, drawn in of the bloodscents as the beasts tore each other apart; though many of the sharks were gliding and nudging against each other without harm, their rush to grab any part of their injured brethren left ample room for confusion in the red soaked waters and one accidental nip was all it would take to switch a designation from fellow predator, to up for grabs prey.

The taste was thick in Raven's mouth, forcibly bubbling up memories whished would stay popped, and stirred pangs of riling guilt and hunger within the folds of her membranous skirt; the smell was as enticing as it was nauseating, and for a moment, she wasn't sure if she felt compelled to join in the bloodlust, or repelled to swim against it and hurdle herself away.

"There's no way we can fight them all off," Beast Boy remarked, his worried frame amazed with fear; "There's so many!"

"We might not need to fight them," Robin thought aloud, reading the troubled waters with his well-practiced mind; "Maybe we can lead them father into the Deep."

"That could be suicide," cyborg interjected, tension lacing the swish of his tail.

"So's just sitting here," Mammoth remarked; "Unless you wanna' bury yourselves in the sand like a bunch of hermits."

"Where's Jinx and the others," Raven inquired, ignoring the barbed banter as she scanned the waters for any splashes of pink.

"She's holed up in her lair," Mammoth offered, "That last bashing of hers gave her a few lasting remarks, so's she's been struck out of the waves of turbulence, since they can smell her."

"Billy's been blocking up the other's dens as best he can," Gizmo added, "He can only grow himself so fast though."

"And See-More is Triton knows where at this point," Mammoth mused; he too scanned the waters, taking stock of the situation at fin; "the others are probably holed up in their dens too; we don't have a headmaster to band together under so most of the younger ones will be too scared to come out and the bullyloners will just wait 'till the tides pull out, the icklaced-louts."

"They won't fight?" Starfire repeated, shock ringing through her words; around her hair, the waters were bright with her strange red bioluminescent algae.

"They might, if Jinx could get out and show off; she's the only one anyone will listen to when there's no adults around," Mammoth explained.

"I can get to her," Raven stated evenly; "Which hole is hers?"

"From here it's fourteenth rows over, forty down," Mammoth offered; "Should be a bit above the middle, just above where the light fades. most of the lairs are empty there, so you should be able to feel her, with that weird... thing, you do," he furthered, gesturing vaguely with his jaw.

Raven offered him a solemn nod.

"Raven," Robin interjected, forcing her attention to him; "Be careful," he warned, not quite a plea.

"Of course," she replied evenly; "In the meantime, it might be beneficial to think of some way to shepherd them all. Perhaps with the net?"

"That's what I was debating on," Robin agreed, "We'll worry about that for now," he cut, "Just keep yourself safe, alright? Get back to us when you can."

"Good luck," Starfire thrummed.

"Don't be surprised if she stuns you," Gizmo yelled, as she turned tail towards the edge of the Shelf.

She paid the boy no mind, and focused on tracking the easiest path beneath the circling sharks; while none of them would be focused on her in particular, while she kept low, she didn't doubt that there wouldn't be at one or two of them that wouldn't dive in for a curious nip.

It was at times like these, that she cursed herself for not having scales.

Still, she had several adaptations to her advantage, and with a few well-placed clouds of ink, she was at the edge of the Drop Off with ease.

Climbing was perhaps the easy part, she mused, and as she slipped lower along the Shelf, she felt herself relax slightly from the tension, even as she watched the fray around her continue to swirl in a whirlpool of feeding.

The other factor, that she was forced to consider, was the abundance of sand and muck that was continually rolling off the wall over her body as she moved; it didn't make navigating any more difficult per say, but sand in her gills was a scratching, biting sting that she tried to avoid on the best of days. The best she could do, she found was to hold her breath as she moved, and then allow herself a breath when the dust started to settle.

She kept her awareness up as she focused on crawling along the wall; an attack from the distant depths could launch out at any moment and she tried to keep aware of which crevices and jutting debris she could make use of. Occasionally, a dead or dying creature would be rammed into the wall near her, or else tumble against as it fell and rolled off the shelf on its way down to the murky depths below.

When this was all over, Raven mused, the Hive at least would ample surplus from which to feed.

She dodged and waited out such near encounters, and kept herself wary of the fray.

Slowly, she worked her over, and down; she tried her best to keep track of the 'rows' and 'columns', but the lairs had distributed where the best natural formations of the Shelf had suited, and so her search was more guesswork than not.

The lower she went, the more she feared the larger, lone sharks that were waiting to snap up the falling dead.

Lower still, when Raven crawled along the scratchy muck covered wall, she worried about tearing her skin along hidden protrusions and craggy rock; it would be a minor hindrance, but it would be a pain she'd rather avoid if she could.

She was getting a bit too deep for her comfort now; she feared overlooking her destination or else wandering away from it entirely.

Raven took a moment to filter a large breath through her gills; it would be a risky move, she thought, to use her filament sensors, but it would be the quickest way to locate the girl she wanted to find.

Carefully, she let the long strands extend out into the Deep, away from where they could snag on the shelf, and waited.

They easily picked up the hundreds of sharks swirling around, darting and thrashing every few tails away; the sensations were almost overwhelming. Only her time in the great underwater cities kept her from retching now; bile still tried to rise into her mouth, though she managed to keep it down.

Past the dizzying impulses of the sharks, was a slightly quieter signal, a steady pulsation that Raven recognized well.

She sighed in relief, her abdomen flattening as the rush of water expelled from her gills.

Jinx was just a few tail-lengths ahead, and while there were a few interested parties gathered around her lair, Raven was confident in her ability to sneak inside unscathed.

She crawled along the wall with renewed purpose, and continued on at a steady, if outwardly confusing, pace.

Jinx's lair was illuminated with the faintest of pink light, and the entrance was very well hidden; Raven's body was easily capable of squeezing in through the overlayed rocks, and a final burst of ink ensured that the sharks ramming into the wall around her in frustrated hunger, missed their opportunity to snag one of her many prehensile limbs.

She wormed her way inside slowly, feeling out the correct places to go with her tentacles first, before sliding the rest of herself deeper; she had no interest in wedging herself into a crevice from which she would not return.

After a few precautionary rocks, the lair opened up, and Raven took a refreshed, easily had, breath as she drank in the sigh of Jinx's den.

Jinx was laying sprawled along the denfloor, a particularly nasty looking scratch now quite visible along her flank. Jinx regarded her warily, but made no warning displays, or drift of body.

"Can't get enough of me already eh, baitfish?" she shot weakly; Raven got the impression that the girl was more than exhausted, judging from the bruises and abrasion along her body.

"Your pod needs you," Raven murmured, gaging the wounds.

"I gave everyone enough time to dig in," Jinx rebuked, glancing her flank over with a long, meek, slap of her tail; "If I go out there like this, I'll be mincemeat in seconds."

"No," Raven corrected, readiying her body; she looked at Jinx with determination; "I can help you, mask the scent and stop the bleeding. They won't notice you."

"Oh?" Jinx mused, her fins and her mood perking up; "You gotta' neat magic trick up your skirt?"

"Yes, actually," Raven admitted, scuttling closer.

Raven paused a moment, gauging Jinx's willingness.

The girl made no move to stop her, so Raven tentatively allowed her tentacles to creep over the mergirl's scaley body.

She closed her eyes, and she felt the blue phosphoresce within her alight, and dim into a cool white; as her tentacles instinctively sought out the wounds in front of them, her suckers and spines sliding harmlessly, the appendages began to secrete a slime like substance, coating Jinx's scales and lacerations easily.

Jinx shivered and twitched slightly under her touch instinctually, but her notorious pink shocks remained absent, though Taven could feel the strange pulsing tingles under Jinx's skin whenever her tentacles wandered over the girl's lateral line.

"What is this stuff?" Jinx asked curiously, bending so that she could watch.

"cyborg calls it a 'slime coat'," Raven offered; "It speeds up the healing process greatly, and it'll stop the bleeding."

"Neat," Jinx replied, a little in awe.

"Just don't scrub it off, and you should be fine in a day or two," Raven continued absently, as she continued to ghost along Jinx's long, eel-like tail.

"So how bad is it out there?" Jinx asked personably.

"Pretty bad," Raven answered honestly, seeing no reason to spare her the news; she continued to devote more of her concentration to keep her lower half from mauling the girl beneath her.

"Any plan?"

"I suspect that Robin and the others will herd the masses away, barring the way back with the net," Raven offered; "I didn't have time to stay for the specifics, so I suppose we shall see."

Jinx hummed a trilling sound, that trickled down her abdomen and fizzled out near her pectoral fins.

"I'll probably be running defensive then," Jinx mused, "Stunning anything that gets to close?"

"Thought would be helpful," Raven agreed as she glided closer to the girl's elongated adipose fin.

"It's weird, having you trying to put me back together instead of ripping me apart," Jinx reflected idly; she rolled her body slightly, to allow better access to the bite mark that had been partially hidden in the sand.

"Perhaps later then, I'll rend you apart for old times sake," Raven jested, a smirk finding its way to her lips. She opened her eyes and took stock of Jinx's body.

It was as good as it was going to get, Raven assessed, under a single application of the secretion.

"Alright, I think you're ready," she murmured, as she began the intricate process of detangling herself from the girl, each of her tentacles scrambling over each other to drag her back to the den's powdery soft floor.

"Sweet," Jinx replied, shaking herself to a buoyant rise above the sand.

Jinx curled around and looked at her, her body lighting up in its familiar maddening dancing pattern that reached even to the ends of her barbels, and cast her a smiling wink.

"Let's go make chum outta' these cohorts," Jinx bellowed, her sparks flaring up at her sides; she struck forward, darting out of the den with ease, leaving Raven to hurtle after her through her wake.

Jinx's stunning ability cleared the entrance from aggressors by the time Raven reached the opening crevice, and followed Jinx's shimmering tail out into the open waters, and the chaos above.

Raven tailed Jinx upwards, back to the Shelf, and higher still to survey the situation beside her.

Hundreds of sharks still circled loosely, darting after their wounded with singular intensities; the water was still cloudy in large patches of wafting red.

Along the Shelf, the others seemed to be in the process of unfurling the net; it was extremely long, and both Mammoth and Cyborg were banking on their great strengths to forcibly trawl the net forward to push the sharks back.

Starfire was starting to gain the attention of the great fishes; her trailing hair easily fooled the sharks into tracking her for their meal, and her superior evasion and strength kept her well out of any eager mouth's way.

"I don't think this'll work," Jinx observed, floating in place.

"It's worth a try," Raven countered.

This seemed to appease Jinx, or else, the girl had already decided to go along with the plan regardlessly, and sprung into a speeding upheaving nosedive down into the fray near Mammoth.

The merboy would be protected with her care, so Raven turned her attention towards her own teammate.

Her descent was a little more measured, and a little more filled with evasive measures as several of the sharks surrounding her lunged their attempted destabilising blows.

When she pulled up next to her mechanically enhanced friend, the merboy smiled with relief.

"Glad you made it," he greeted around a few hefting grunts.

"I'm more worried about you right now," she murmured, eyeing the threats that were eyeing her friend.

"Ain't nothin' for 'em as long as they hit the parts that aren't fleshy," he boasted as he continued to pull the net in steady, bursting tugs.

"They might damage your wires or internal structures," Raven countered, more for her steadying of breath than his; "I'm going to stick around anyway, just in case if you don't mind," she declared quietly, her eyes already locked on the closest aggressor.

Cyborg barked a throaty laugh and swished his inorganic tail.

When the hammerhead surged towards them, ready to take an experimental nibble, Raven raced up to greet him and flared out her membraneous tentacle skirt, shocking the fish into recoiling in a terrified thrash.

Even as she did so, there was another of the strangely eyed fish ramming into cyborg's flank behind her; Cyborg swished his heavy tail upwards, smacking the great fish with a terrible force, and forced himself back into position.

Raven swam back to him, and flared away another shark, her luminance slowly brightening up to its normal bright blue.

"See if you can draw them to the other side of the net," Cyborg suggested through gritted teeth and strained arms.

"They'll rip right through it," Raven spat, even as she bent backward aginst her spine to pull the shark in her grasp under the net; she released it on the other side and thought to leave a raking gash along its side with her tentacles vicious, spinning hooks.

Several of the sharks changed their attentions to their freshly wounded companion, and Raven began an arduous process of manually relocating them to the correct side of the net without getting bitten, leaving Cyborg to ferry the strain of the net as it was bombarded with the growing mass of sharks it was collecting.

Inside the net, Starfire was doing her part to keep the strain away from the net itself, choosing instead to school the hammerheads into a massive spiral in front of it that shifted slowly as the net crawled forward.

Robin, out in the distance, was fighting off the fish from the wounded Hive members as he found them, shepherding the floundering mers to the safety of the inner Shelf. Raven internally lamented the amount of damage the merboy would doubtlessly receive.

Across the way, Raven could just faintly make out the pink flashed of Jinx's sparks; their end of the net would no doubt be the safest for it; as she strained to make out the progress of their group, Raven was rammed from behind, knocking her from her catch.

The force was brutal, but not severe enough to spin her vision black; she sucked in a breath a pulled her skirt around her head, letting her mass of hooks and spines raise up, effectively turning herself into a ball of a bad idea that the shark fearlessly dived into.

His dive quickly turned out to be a mistake, and the fish turntailed near instantly as her unforgiving, writhing masses of tentacles serrated the flesh of his sprawled out face.

When he pulled free of her, Raven swirled her skirt back down and quickly pulled in her tentacles; she wasn't fast enough however, as one particularly lucky aggressor chomped his teeth around a mouthful of her sucker-hooked appendages.

He bit clean through them, the hooks and suckers already digging into his face, and Raven launched herself out and away from him, ignoring the pulling sting of the tentacles that hadn't been bitten clean through ripping away from herself at great force.

Bleeding now, and hyper-aware that she was a greater target for it, Raven looked around quickly; all around her, things seemed to be going even deeper into the murk of Deadzone.

Her friends were struggling, as were the Hive pod; for every shark they pushed back, another dozen or so joined in the fray.

Screams were sounding off along the shelf; Raven dared not think on why.

A trembling panicked unease rippled through her, her mind flashing with images of the last, brutal assault her team had struggled through; flashes of the blonde rockfish fueling her grief.

She didn't want anyone else to die.

Her mind made itself up even as she remained unaware of it; it was as if a great calm overtook her, and something older than herself, from deep inside of her, echoed out in the vastness of the seas.

Her body rippled and swayed slightly, her glow a strong, pulsing blue.

There weren't any thoughts, in her mind, though a vague situational awareness lingered.

A strange feeling, a funny sort of sound, filled her head.

She felt all at once faint, distant, and dizzy.

It stopped.

Raven shivered, suddenly feeling as though she were back inside her own body, as if she had previously left it.

surprise and confusion floating her, she flared her skirt enough to propel herself back a bit, to take stock of the sharks around her.

Most of her attention, however, after checking her immediate surroundings, almost immediately turned to the waters beyond the Drop Off, out in the empty Deep.

It was as if time slowed; to Raven it felt as if time maybe might have stopped existing altogether, for a brief, uncanny moment.

From the lightless depths, a formless mass began to rise.

Terror, unlike anything she had ever experienced, filled her to very core and her body instinctively curled up to itself as she cried out; no sound spilled out, but a steady stream of bubbles momentarily marred her vision until some uncontrolled part of her high thinking reasoned to force her jaws shut and stem the flow.

More shapes began lifting up; long, tapered arms of a creature so massive, it nearly defined logic.

Raven looked on, terrified, as the pull of the creature lifting itself, caused swells and tumbling currents around itself; it was only when a giant, ocular eye in the distance raised into view, that Raven felt every muscle in her body collapse with relief.

The colossal squid, as fully risen as the comparatively shallow waters would allow, clicked a stuttering, thundering stream of screeches; its massive arm, thicker than a blue whale and longer than almost anything Raven had ever seen before, surged forward slowly.

It scooped through the water, batting a wave bigger than most of the mighty currents, knocking everything in its path aside.

The frenzy was halted as the hundreds of sharks and fearstruck mers were stricken; as the appendage pulled closer to Raven, she found herself taking the timeless pause to debate her choice of action.

She swam upwards, propelling herself upward in a great, skirt pulsing heave that nearly breached her from the ocean itself.

She fell backwards, her back striking the surface, where the wake of the squid pulled her back under with such a ripping force, that the impact of movement dizzied her and blinded her from her orientation.

She fell, slipping in a turbulent series of crashing wakes and bruising collisions; streams of dust and bubbles clouding her eyes and gills.

Eventually, she felt herself hit what must have been the seafloor.

She stayed, unmoving, as the unusually large colossus continued to swerve his tentacles around the interrupted fray.

She could hear somehow, the crushing clicking sounds of the way the beast's beak easily cleaved through the many impacted hammerheads it drew into its deafening beak.

It seemed like time dragged on infinitely, as it feasted.

Her head pounding, and her body aching, Raven barely had the sense of herself left to wonder if she would soon lose her ability to hear.

All at once, everything seemed to stop.

The ocean was clear.

Raven, not quite trusting herself to move, made the quiet decision, to let her filaments drift out.

The squid was already sinking into the Deep.

The sharks, what remained of them, were fleeing.

The waters were very nearly, for the moment, empty.

Raven exhaled a dust disturbing exhalation from her gills, a singular thought coursing through her collapsing and expanding bladder based aquatic vascular system.

_'Mother help me, I am never doing that again...'_

 

**Author's Note:**

> Raven is based around a Vampire Squid, but there are several liberties taken on her on account of her parentage; ie shooting ink, having bioluminescence, having variable numbers of tentacles at any given time, ect.   
> Jinx is loosely based around a catfish and an electric eel. There is no such thing as a Cheshire Catfish (to my knowledge) so I made her roughly how I thought her abilities would translate over into being as a mermaid.   
> Robin is a sea robin, which is quite close to flyingfish; which is a light pun on his parents being the "Flying Graysons", Beast Boy is a mimic octopus, Starfire will be based on a few different things, and Cyborg will have prosthetics.


End file.
